


the place we now call home

by Lord_Maple



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, M/M, two guys having tea in the void six feet apart because they are gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25453489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lord_Maple/pseuds/Lord_Maple
Summary: “Do want to go back? We can do that, you know.”“We could,” said Claude. “Kinda want to relax a bit more before that. Big schemes can only be prepared with a well-rested brain, you know.”==In a place far away from Fodlan, two men chat over chamomile tea.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/Claude von Riegan, implied past dimileth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	the place we now call home

“I’m glad that you could join me, Claude. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to sit down and have tea like this.”

Claude already figured, given the current circumstances. This situation is, well… one could say that it was a natural consequence of the war in retrospect, given the nearly limitless possibilities that rose from it. The thing is, this wasn’t ‘supposed’ to happen at all. The war was supposed to conclude the moment the professor rose from their false grave. They were supposed to pick a side and come out victorious in a matter of months, ending the slaughter and greet the new dawn. Goddess powers are apparently real, and that makes almost everything a set deal when mistakes can just be divined away at a pulse’s notice.

However, it’s not invincible, hence this current situation.

Sothis, according to Byleth, said that there are things she cannot change no matter how hard she tries. Things defined by an arbitrary concept called ‘fate’— unstoppable and unflappable. Jeralt’s death was ‘fate’. Byleth’s arrival to the academy was ‘fate’. Edelgard’s war was ‘fate’. Claude isn’t entirely sure if such a thing is a truly tangible obstacle, or if Sothis was arrogant enough to believe that if she and her avatar cannot change it, no one else can. 

Well, Claude did contemplate the existence of fate once before during his academy days, but now that he’s sitting here, enjoying tea with a supposedly dead man in this dark, dark world, he’s not so sure. Surely, an outcome like this was not something as arbitrary as a ‘fate’ set by a higher being than Sothis, but a collective result of humanity’s will to self-destruct. Claude’s world… was not a pleasant place to be.

Dimitri’s face doesn’t betray his thoughts on the matter. He sips chamomile with the same princely mask that he did at Garreg Mach.

“Claude?”

“Yeah?”

“Do want to go back? We can do that, you know.”

‘We’. He says ‘we’ like he isn’t the only one who obtained godhood overnight. The ‘Dimitri’ before him is not human, just as Felix once proclaimed, but he isn’t a mere ‘boar’. He is a being that ascended the mortal plane, a ‘god’ for lack of a better word. This place where they are having tea time is a void far removed from the realm of time— a darkness that once upon a time, their dearest professor fell into and broke out of. This is now Dimitri’s domain— the place that Solon once called ‘Zahras’.

“We could,” said Claude. “Kinda want to relax a bit more before that. Big schemes can only be prepared with a well-rested brain, you know.”

“Indeed. I hope whatever you come up with, it’ll all work out.”

“Don’t worry, Your Princeliness. I’ve crossed bridges before, but I’m not the type to take unnecessary risks. I have a scheme cooking up right this instant— one where everyone lives.”

“Stopping the war?”

“Eliminating those who slither in the dark before they even exist.”

Claude saw it all with Dimitri’s powers at hand. Four worlds where Byleth took different paths— painting the big picture of Fodlan’s future and the full nuances of it’s tragedies. It was like a game of sorts, and, ha, that’s a thought. _Professor— were you really human?_ Or were they really a vessel the whole time— an avatar for Claude and Dimitri to play as instead of Sothis as Rhea intended? The possibility sends a chill up Claude’s spine. For all of Claude’s curiosity, this question will never go answered, nor does it need to be.

And Dimitri— the crown prince who once lived in a timeline where he was in a loving relationship with said professor, gained the happiness he craved, and died surrounded by all of his friends, reincarnated as the god pouring himself more tea in this lonely, cold darkness. The professor probably didn’t realize that their blessing also served as a curse. One of the first things Dimitri told him, which Claude recalls with startling clarity, was that he was his ‘light’.

And thus, here he is, shining a light on a path for a better future.

“Are you okay with that? With creating a such a world even if we’ll never be part of it?”

“Just seeing it once is fine. After that, we can go wherever you like. There are worlds and places outside of the Fodlan, you know? The distant past or the far future— I’ll let you pick the location of our first godhood date.”

Now that got a chuckle out of Dimitri. “Yes… I saw a glimpse of it earlier. A glimpse of a world where buildings are built so high it scraped the skies. Where metal machines fly across roads at speeds that put horses to shame. After we see the world you want, I’ll take you there.”

Almost any world would be better than what Claude ended up in— one where Fodlan destroyed itself by endless war. An ultra rare existence— where the Professor’s abilities failed and led to their death. Where Sothis, deep inside the professor’s heart, was stolen by Claude himself as a last ditch effort to take back what was lost. The result was failure for he did not turn back time— he landed at the halfway point, the void called ‘Zahras’. But it’s okay. Soon enough, Dimitri will make him forget that. We’ll make this place our home, he thought.

“Hey, Dimitri. Out of curiosity, did you…”

“Hmm?”

“… back in the academy. Did you have feelings for me?”

Dimitri cocked his head to the side in thought. “I’m… afraid I do not recall. It’s been so long for me. Why the question?”

“Same here, and I was just wondering if it was fate that brought us together or not. It’s just us two, you know? Is it really a coincidence?”

“But what does that have to do with my feelings?”

“Because isn’t always the power of love that surpasses fate, rather than some arbitrary time powers?”

Claude smiles at the thought. Dimitri did as well. “Or fervent determination. But it doesn’t make a difference, does it? Not with us— we who are severed from the flow of time.”


End file.
